Not really gonna use my ideas for any maps, but gonna leave it in the forum for people to use maybe.
Multi-leveled spells:
Icebolt - Charges up to 5 Icebolts and allows the unit to fire them off at any unit/structure. Higher rank will have faster casting time and greater damage. Can be used with a wand to further increase the range by 20% and also do more damage (with the proper elemental wand). Fastest cast time at a higher rank, more constant streamlined damage.
Firebolt - Charges up to 5 Firebolts, but as soon as you fire it, all will hit 1 target, dealing a multiplier damage of the bolts. Deals a greater amount of damage than Icebolts, higher ranks will have faster casting time and damage. Can be used with a wand. Slowest cast time.
Lightningbolt - Charges up to 5 Lightningbolts, but each bolt represents the number of adjacent targets you can hit near your targets. Higher ranks will have faster casting time and damage. Can be used with a wand. Fastest cast at low rank, but icebolt at higher rank becomes faster than it. Longer stun time than Icebolts.
If anyone notices, I took these ideas from Mabinogi.
Icebolt
Firebolt (video shows chaincasting wands [casting more charges in a cast])
Lightning bolt (rank 1 dan test but it will show the use of lightning)
You should really get an animator to edit the marine animations so you can incorporate more stuff... Because modellers and animators are usually the two types that are needed the most in the mod industry.
That's the tower wars concept. There are many of those out there as well. I prefer, however, for the AI to challenge the players for what I have in mind.
----
But the problem is, sometimes the AI is a bit too far up the road, and it always sends unit that you're not prepared for, since it checks your base and you can't see "the AI's units".
Something like a Gamble TD might work out though, since the actions aren't from AI functions, but "random" coin flips on clues that might have the unit pop out as:
Coin 1 - Ground
Coin 2 - Mechanical
Coin 3 - Fast
Maybe have players able to spend points to get clues or hints, thus making it challenging if they don't rely on it, but able to save their points for better uses, like defenses.
Both, both and both. There is audience for every place on the difficulty curve, which should be evident by the existence and popularity of both highly competitive and easy maps. Now, what difficulty do the masses prefer - that's a different question. I don't see why that should concern me in any way, though. I'm not looking for profit or worship, but rather to advance my skills and to create the game I would like to play. Everyone is free to direct a map at whatever audience he/she likes.
That said, I did not imply any of what you said with "situational awareness", except the last one. Really, can a game be fun to play without any real engagement? Not that I know of. It doesn't necessarily have to be a gameplay engagement, it can be the storyline, the visual effects, the choreography. I don't see how one can rely purely on those in a TD, though.
Of course, the difficulty cannot be very high, for it would damage the game in a different way. My goal is to provide several difficulty levels - that ideally differ by more than just effective health.
I'm not sure at all which concepts I'll use and which I'll change. I'll post some ideas when I finish brainstorming
----
Rather than going with hardcore difficulties you find in some places in the world (Japan for example), it is better to get the player more involved and challenge themselves with it.
Implement a high score or something that might be important for the players to strive to do better, not give them tougher mobs.
One idea I think I saw in a old map, was where players can "send mobs" to their defenses to kill, harder but in exchange, gain minerals/resources. This is what I mean by making them involved.
Simple idea, just use TD but make 2 teams of players face off each other.
Now it's not a matter of survival, but testing each other's defenses...
Maybe, 2 halves of the map, where the team can build, and players can gain points to send units in a "direction" on roads.
It is up to players to defend the roads from the enemies, so basically, a smart player will try to seek out the weakest defense in their opponent's base.
To make it even more interesting...
Do it like train tracks!
See, on the map, there will be 3 roads leading into a base, and these 3 roads have "forks" in the middle of the map. Players can use their points to "flip" the switches on the forks, causing the mobs to head in a different direction.
Being smart and manipulating the direction into your defenses also means you gain more points to retaliate, and using points to manipulate your opponent's movements.
I agree that the Dice system needs to be more simple and easier to access, because players want to keep their eyes on the board rather on the dice...
Maybe start working on a UI for this map?
Maybe set up a "card" system for this game so it'll appear on your screen as a Dialog, of which it can allow you to do various inputs, like trading properties for cash with other players, ON your turn.
Maybe you could enhance it by using real world mechanics to make the explosion work?
Maybe a force field + ignite can trap and burn the target, leaving a tiny hole at the top of the field for it to burn, and once the field goes down, a explosion occurs because of the oxygen making contact with the fire so fast.
What about the Phoenix's levitation ability when combined with area effect spells?
Acid Pool + Levitation? Picks up a unit and drops it as soon as Acid Pool is casted under the unit.
Quicksand + Quake? Slows then traps a unit on top of the quicksand, sinking it under the ground, then a Quake can occur to crush the target, doing massive damage.
Heck, for the quake idea, it would be really cool if Terrain-Modifying spells can kill units, like sending out a surge of earth at your opponent to bury them.
Oh, since this is sc2, make a switch when combining parts, so you don't have to time them right...
The original golem have a TON of combination, including when you add a number of them in a hard to do manner.
Maybe this can be more cooler and advanced, if you can use BUNKERS!
Set up 4 bunkers for each player, in a area.
The pieces a player gets, are small pieces, but they sometime gets large pieces too.
Then...
Combine them!
Since it's 4 bunkers, call them Synthesis Ovens, that requires a proper number and type of units in the bunker to do a combo.
Maybe limit 2 supplies (1 smalls, or 1 big) per bunker, as raising the number of combination with 4 supplies per bunker can be complicated...
You should make use of attributes to make a separation between heroes maybe...
But I think there should be this:
Infantry - The units you spawn
Support - Golems you create that has supportive effects, does not have much offensive abilities.
Hero - Offensive Golems that have high aggressive abilities and able to destroy Infantries.
Anti-Hero - Offensive Golems that main abilities is to destroy Hero Golems.
Then how do you balance out the bunker unit, so it doesn't really kill every single thing sent at it?
Use attributes:
Bunker Unit - Has bonus damage to Infantry, and small bonuses to (Anti)Hero and Support.
Hero and Anti-Hero golems should have armors that lowers damage from infantry, but Hero would have the best effective armor.
Making use of the Immortal's ability should work well, especially if you can do it in a smart way:
Modify the max damage a Hero can take from infantries, to 10. And look where it's only limited to infantries, which means other attribute types can deal more damage to it.
If you can make use of most spells from the contest (with permission of course) and balance it, it would work out well tactically.
There's a huge difference, between strategy and tactics.
The idea is still to create multiple uses to each spell.
Fire should burn trees in the area to clear a path, or also use that as a catalyst when burning stuff, to generate a greater firepower (maybe a fire explosion) by calculating the fire effects that's burning the trees/units/doodads.
So by having multiple spells with multiple uses, you can come up with player crafted combos, rather than creating it in the data editor and have the player use it as is.
By having players adapt and learn to combine their spells, they can probably also create their own strings of attack too, making the process more skill based.
I can use Mabinogi, a MMORPG for an example, as it uses real time attacks, with the main emphasis on skills. The skills have a multitude of effects.
*You can do a short combo and chain a windmill at the end. [N+WM]
*You can icebolt then charge at a target after it gets stunned from the bolt, then smash.[ICE+CH+SM]
*You can do ice counter, by using icebolt and countering.[ICE+CO]
Then updates and contents adds more and more skills, and the players figure out how to manipulate them to their advantage.
And the fact that the FFXIII project had to be renamed kinda shows how exaggerated people are with laws and stuff...
Being attacked by such companies for "holding a IP" is very low, as they also GAIN NOTHING, out of it.
What do they get out of suing the hell out of a group of guys who's making a game for free?
1 tactic marketing and law departments can get everyone, is when they make EVERYONE think in a specific mind set, and this will make everyone easier to target. See where the government and imperialism in this world is leading to?
When Apple sues something, they make sure they get something in return, but they do have other options like C&D letters (scare tactics from the department, as the higher ups have NO IDEA that such things exist so they let other people do the work for them, heck all they do is make decision, and they usually don't get a chance to think if it's a tiny tiny non-significant project, they'll either nod their head or refuse it, simple as that).
Note that there are certain individuals (small world, who knows?) that would do whatever it takes, to eliminate the possibility of mods/maps/etc, mainly because they think it's in their companies interest (and like a dog wagging their tails, if they think they do good, they get treats, aka money).
Figure out how a company works, THEN complain on this forum, okay?
I'm still waiting to see if someone will make a "combo" spell that can provide a nice change to the submissions...
Idea:
Ice and Force combo...
When used alone:
Ice will slow then freeze target.
Force will push target back.
When used together:
1) Ice(x2) freezes target
2) Force shatters target
For rpg elements:
Implement "charges" to exist with players, they can be like in many mmorpgs, where casting it will create a floating orb of charge that spins around your character.
To do this, you will require to use 2 spells ONLY if you want to make it efficient and easy to use.
1st spell = Cast charges - Each time you used this, 1 charge will be added.
2nd spell = Unleash charges - The number of charges unleashed will do different effects (example, 1 charge unleash is always weaker than a 5 charge, and a 5 charge effect will always do a area attack and do large amounts of damage).
Can make it seem like magic casting in some ways, rather than magic coming out of your hand really fast, it requires prerequisites.
If your going to go along with the fallout universe, you can probably CREATE your own models that looks similar yet not alike to them.
There's nothing wrong if you created a entirely new area with new weapons, storyline, and characters, for example.
Just make sure it occurs in a "fictional" kind of situation where the real story doesn't parallel into it, keep it far away from the main/real story of it.
As for weapons and naming, you can probably still use terms for the guns and such, otherwise it wouldn't be as "fallout" as it would seem. Just don't mess too much with the models of the gun, this IS a RTS so you'll be unlikely to make them that interesting anyways (compared to unit models)...
So the main point:
- Getting unit models and "armors/clothing" to work... Maybe making a generic humanoid model (because it's generic and abstract, Bethesda can't sue you for making a "humanoid" model), and them texturing them. You can texture a generic clothing blue to represent a vault suit btw, no need to get all fancy.
- Weapons would only consist of names so modeling and texturing work is left out, to make it easier to manage (this is a rpg so you don't need to worry about looks right?).
- You can take game elements and functionality out of fallout, as it makes fallout a fallout game. Removing them because the creators/company says so is stupid because it wouldn't be a fallout rpg without that rpg element. VATS and turn based elements HAVE to stay in because without it, it'll be boring.
Short term: So long as you don't take physical data from them, they don't care. It's just with "some" games that they do, like Chronotrigger and Final Fantasy for example, where their fame and reputation is quite huge, in the market and in history.
Even if you attempted to make a profit from it, you'd fail because people would've done something to "pirate" your maps... o.O
So you lose the potential to make a profit AND have lawsuit coming at your arse.
So GG and better keep that map/mod "price" free otherwise people will complain, and this'll attract more attention from the entire market, thus increasing risk of being sued...
0
Not really gonna use my ideas for any maps, but gonna leave it in the forum for people to use maybe.
Multi-leveled spells:
Icebolt - Charges up to 5 Icebolts and allows the unit to fire them off at any unit/structure. Higher rank will have faster casting time and greater damage. Can be used with a wand to further increase the range by 20% and also do more damage (with the proper elemental wand). Fastest cast time at a higher rank, more constant streamlined damage.
Firebolt - Charges up to 5 Firebolts, but as soon as you fire it, all will hit 1 target, dealing a multiplier damage of the bolts. Deals a greater amount of damage than Icebolts, higher ranks will have faster casting time and damage. Can be used with a wand. Slowest cast time.
Lightningbolt - Charges up to 5 Lightningbolts, but each bolt represents the number of adjacent targets you can hit near your targets. Higher ranks will have faster casting time and damage. Can be used with a wand. Fastest cast at low rank, but icebolt at higher rank becomes faster than it. Longer stun time than Icebolts.
If anyone notices, I took these ideas from Mabinogi.
Icebolt
Firebolt (video shows chaincasting wands [casting more charges in a cast])
Lightning bolt (rank 1 dan test but it will show the use of lightning)
0
You should really get an animator to edit the marine animations so you can incorporate more stuff... Because modellers and animators are usually the two types that are needed the most in the mod industry.
0
Quote from Unabsurdity:
@dra6o0n: Go
That's the tower wars concept. There are many of those out there as well. I prefer, however, for the AI to challenge the players for what I have in mind.
----
But the problem is, sometimes the AI is a bit too far up the road, and it always sends unit that you're not prepared for, since it checks your base and you can't see "the AI's units".
Something like a Gamble TD might work out though, since the actions aren't from AI functions, but "random" coin flips on clues that might have the unit pop out as:
Coin 1 - Ground
Coin 2 - Mechanical
Coin 3 - Fast
Maybe have players able to spend points to get clues or hints, thus making it challenging if they don't rely on it, but able to save their points for better uses, like defenses.
0
Quote from Unabsurdity:
@Vexal: Go
Both, both and both. There is audience for every place on the difficulty curve, which should be evident by the existence and popularity of both highly competitive and easy maps. Now, what difficulty do the masses prefer - that's a different question. I don't see why that should concern me in any way, though. I'm not looking for profit or worship, but rather to advance my skills and to create the game I would like to play. Everyone is free to direct a map at whatever audience he/she likes.
That said, I did not imply any of what you said with "situational awareness", except the last one. Really, can a game be fun to play without any real engagement? Not that I know of. It doesn't necessarily have to be a gameplay engagement, it can be the storyline, the visual effects, the choreography. I don't see how one can rely purely on those in a TD, though.
Of course, the difficulty cannot be very high, for it would damage the game in a different way. My goal is to provide several difficulty levels - that ideally differ by more than just effective health.
I'm not sure at all which concepts I'll use and which I'll change. I'll post some ideas when I finish brainstorming
----
Rather than going with hardcore difficulties you find in some places in the world (Japan for example), it is better to get the player more involved and challenge themselves with it.
Implement a high score or something that might be important for the players to strive to do better, not give them tougher mobs.
One idea I think I saw in a old map, was where players can "send mobs" to their defenses to kill, harder but in exchange, gain minerals/resources. This is what I mean by making them involved.
0
Make a "TD Versus" map.
Simple idea, just use TD but make 2 teams of players face off each other.
Now it's not a matter of survival, but testing each other's defenses...
Maybe, 2 halves of the map, where the team can build, and players can gain points to send units in a "direction" on roads.
It is up to players to defend the roads from the enemies, so basically, a smart player will try to seek out the weakest defense in their opponent's base.
To make it even more interesting...
Do it like train tracks!
See, on the map, there will be 3 roads leading into a base, and these 3 roads have "forks" in the middle of the map. Players can use their points to "flip" the switches on the forks, causing the mobs to head in a different direction.
Being smart and manipulating the direction into your defenses also means you gain more points to retaliate, and using points to manipulate your opponent's movements.
0
I agree that the Dice system needs to be more simple and easier to access, because players want to keep their eyes on the board rather on the dice...
Maybe start working on a UI for this map?
Maybe set up a "card" system for this game so it'll appear on your screen as a Dialog, of which it can allow you to do various inputs, like trading properties for cash with other players, ON your turn.
0
3 armored near impossible hp given to units every single turn...
They should start looking for new ways to advance TDs, not upgrade upgrade upgrade your towers to handle them.
Defenses needs to be really adaptable to ALL situations and they all should have attribute damage so players can create a pattern or combo.
0
@b0ne123:
Maybe you could enhance it by using real world mechanics to make the explosion work?
Maybe a force field + ignite can trap and burn the target, leaving a tiny hole at the top of the field for it to burn, and once the field goes down, a explosion occurs because of the oxygen making contact with the fire so fast.
What about the Phoenix's levitation ability when combined with area effect spells?
Acid Pool + Levitation? Picks up a unit and drops it as soon as Acid Pool is casted under the unit.
Quicksand + Quake? Slows then traps a unit on top of the quicksand, sinking it under the ground, then a Quake can occur to crush the target, doing massive damage.
Heck, for the quake idea, it would be really cool if Terrain-Modifying spells can kill units, like sending out a surge of earth at your opponent to bury them.
0
Oh, since this is sc2, make a switch when combining parts, so you don't have to time them right...
The original golem have a TON of combination, including when you add a number of them in a hard to do manner.
Maybe this can be more cooler and advanced, if you can use BUNKERS!
Set up 4 bunkers for each player, in a area.
The pieces a player gets, are small pieces, but they sometime gets large pieces too.
Then...
Combine them!
Since it's 4 bunkers, call them Synthesis Ovens, that requires a proper number and type of units in the bunker to do a combo.
Maybe limit 2 supplies (1 smalls, or 1 big) per bunker, as raising the number of combination with 4 supplies per bunker can be complicated...
0
You should make use of attributes to make a separation between heroes maybe...
But I think there should be this:
Infantry - The units you spawn
Support - Golems you create that has supportive effects, does not have much offensive abilities.
Hero - Offensive Golems that have high aggressive abilities and able to destroy Infantries.
Anti-Hero - Offensive Golems that main abilities is to destroy Hero Golems.
Then how do you balance out the bunker unit, so it doesn't really kill every single thing sent at it?
Use attributes:
Bunker Unit - Has bonus damage to Infantry, and small bonuses to (Anti)Hero and Support.
Hero and Anti-Hero golems should have armors that lowers damage from infantry, but Hero would have the best effective armor.
Making use of the Immortal's ability should work well, especially if you can do it in a smart way:
Modify the max damage a Hero can take from infantries, to 10. And look where it's only limited to infantries, which means other attribute types can deal more damage to it.
If you can make use of most spells from the contest (with permission of course) and balance it, it would work out well tactically.
There's a huge difference, between strategy and tactics.
0
@Slypoos:
The idea is still to create multiple uses to each spell.
Fire should burn trees in the area to clear a path, or also use that as a catalyst when burning stuff, to generate a greater firepower (maybe a fire explosion) by calculating the fire effects that's burning the trees/units/doodads.
So by having multiple spells with multiple uses, you can come up with player crafted combos, rather than creating it in the data editor and have the player use it as is.
By having players adapt and learn to combine their spells, they can probably also create their own strings of attack too, making the process more skill based.
I can use Mabinogi, a MMORPG for an example, as it uses real time attacks, with the main emphasis on skills. The skills have a multitude of effects.
*You can do a short combo and chain a windmill at the end. [N+WM]
*You can icebolt then charge at a target after it gets stunned from the bolt, then smash.[ICE+CH+SM]
*You can do ice counter, by using icebolt and countering.[ICE+CO]
Then updates and contents adds more and more skills, and the players figure out how to manipulate them to their advantage.
0
And the fact that the FFXIII project had to be renamed kinda shows how exaggerated people are with laws and stuff...
Being attacked by such companies for "holding a IP" is very low, as they also GAIN NOTHING, out of it.
What do they get out of suing the hell out of a group of guys who's making a game for free?
1 tactic marketing and law departments can get everyone, is when they make EVERYONE think in a specific mind set, and this will make everyone easier to target. See where the government and imperialism in this world is leading to?
When Apple sues something, they make sure they get something in return, but they do have other options like C&D letters (scare tactics from the department, as the higher ups have NO IDEA that such things exist so they let other people do the work for them, heck all they do is make decision, and they usually don't get a chance to think if it's a tiny tiny non-significant project, they'll either nod their head or refuse it, simple as that).
Note that there are certain individuals (small world, who knows?) that would do whatever it takes, to eliminate the possibility of mods/maps/etc, mainly because they think it's in their companies interest (and like a dog wagging their tails, if they think they do good, they get treats, aka money).
Figure out how a company works, THEN complain on this forum, okay?
0
I'm still waiting to see if someone will make a "combo" spell that can provide a nice change to the submissions...
Idea:
Ice and Force combo...
When used alone:
Ice will slow then freeze target.
Force will push target back.
When used together:
1) Ice(x2) freezes target
2) Force shatters target
For rpg elements:
Implement "charges" to exist with players, they can be like in many mmorpgs, where casting it will create a floating orb of charge that spins around your character.
To do this, you will require to use 2 spells ONLY if you want to make it efficient and easy to use.
1st spell = Cast charges - Each time you used this, 1 charge will be added.
2nd spell = Unleash charges - The number of charges unleashed will do different effects (example, 1 charge unleash is always weaker than a 5 charge, and a 5 charge effect will always do a area attack and do large amounts of damage).
Can make it seem like magic casting in some ways, rather than magic coming out of your hand really fast, it requires prerequisites.
0
If your going to go along with the fallout universe, you can probably CREATE your own models that looks similar yet not alike to them.
There's nothing wrong if you created a entirely new area with new weapons, storyline, and characters, for example.
Just make sure it occurs in a "fictional" kind of situation where the real story doesn't parallel into it, keep it far away from the main/real story of it.
As for weapons and naming, you can probably still use terms for the guns and such, otherwise it wouldn't be as "fallout" as it would seem. Just don't mess too much with the models of the gun, this IS a RTS so you'll be unlikely to make them that interesting anyways (compared to unit models)...
So the main point:
- Getting unit models and "armors/clothing" to work... Maybe making a generic humanoid model (because it's generic and abstract, Bethesda can't sue you for making a "humanoid" model), and them texturing them. You can texture a generic clothing blue to represent a vault suit btw, no need to get all fancy.
- Weapons would only consist of names so modeling and texturing work is left out, to make it easier to manage (this is a rpg so you don't need to worry about looks right?).
- You can take game elements and functionality out of fallout, as it makes fallout a fallout game. Removing them because the creators/company says so is stupid because it wouldn't be a fallout rpg without that rpg element. VATS and turn based elements HAVE to stay in because without it, it'll be boring.
Short term: So long as you don't take physical data from them, they don't care. It's just with "some" games that they do, like Chronotrigger and Final Fantasy for example, where their fame and reputation is quite huge, in the market and in history.
0
Even if you attempted to make a profit from it, you'd fail because people would've done something to "pirate" your maps... o.O
So you lose the potential to make a profit AND have lawsuit coming at your arse.
So GG and better keep that map/mod "price" free otherwise people will complain, and this'll attract more attention from the entire market, thus increasing risk of being sued...